Sequoia Capital-backed startup leverages the power of the crowd to protect consumers from mobile spam by identifying and blocking more than 1.5 billion spam calls per year

Millions of iPhone users everyday fall victim to scams and take calls from telemarketers because the iOS platform does not currently allow you to ID calls over its network. e developed our solution specifically with these users in mind, and this is just the latest in a series of innovations we’re building to help consumers outsmart spammers and stay protected against new threats like one ring scams, which can escalate quickly to a charge of $20 or more if you call back an unknown number.

Truecaller today announced Live Caller ID, a new solution that helps protect iOS users from telemarketing and scam calls. With the integration of live Caller ID in the Truecaller app for iOS, iPhone owners now have the ability to verify incoming calls in real time, allowing them to safeguard their phones against robocalls and one-rings scams which threaten millions of people around the world every day. Truecaller is the first company to overcome the existing iOS platform limitation and enable Apple users to identify unknown callers.

How big of a problem is spam?
Mobile spam is a growing problem worldwide and any user with a cell phone is at risk of being targeted. Advances in technology have allowed illegal telemarketers to flourish, giving them the ability to make higher volumes of calls inexpensively around the world, as well as conceal their identity from consumers and law enforcement. Based on data from the FTC, consumer complaints of robocalls could near 2.4 million in 2014.

Over the past four months, Truecaller has seen a major increase in the incidence of mobile spam calls over its platform, which have increased by 250% since December 2013, with the service now detecting more than 4 million spam calls per day. Developed in response to the increasing threat of attacks, now any iOS user can easily verify an incoming call simply by taking a screenshot of the incoming call screen. Truecaller’s 55 million users have already built the world’s largest list of more than 38 million registered spam numbers, and the service is constantly improving with an estimated 75,000 new spam numbers being added every day by community members.

“Millions of iPhone users everyday fall victim to scams and take calls from telemarketers because the iOS platform does not currently allow you to ID calls over its network,” says Truecaller CEO and co-founder, Alan Mamedi. “We developed our solution specifically with these users in mind, and this is just the latest in a series of innovations we’re building to help consumers outsmart spammers and stay protected against new threats like one ring scams, which can escalate quickly to a charge of $20 or more if you call back an unknown number.”

How does Truecaller’s Caller ID work?
Truecaller’s free app lets users take a quick screenshot of the incoming call and then immediately checks the number against Truecaller’s directory. When an unknown number calls, users can easily find out who the caller is, and if it has already been marked as spam by the community. Any member can report a spam call to enhance the service, and after successive reports within a defined period, that number will be permanently in the top spam list. Upon downloading the app, there is the option to automatically block all of the numbers on Truecaller’s top spammers list. The service also recently debuted in the U.S. with a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital, and a global partnership with Yelp to help Truecaller users ID millions of people and businesses calling their phone.

Truecaller is available for free on the world’s most popular platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian. To take part in the growing community, you can download the app today here: http://www.truecaller.com/download

About Truecaller:
Truecaller is the world’s largest verified mobile phone community, dedicated to helping users make the right call. Truecaller’s dynamic community of more than 55 million users is always evolving and is committed to maintaining the integrity of the community by crowdsourcing information to help identify spam callers and verify users. Headquartered in Stockholm, Truecaller was founded in 2009 by Nami Zarringhalam and Alan Mamedi. Truecaller is available on all internet-enabled devices and on the web. For more information visit www.truecaller.com